Anti-Death Penalty Advocates, Victims’ Families Will Be In DC Sunday to Pressure Biden to Act on Innocence Cases
Billie Allen, artist and playwright, wrongfully sentenced to death row for a crime that evidence proves he did not commit, is photographed inside Terre Haute federal prison in Indiana. Photo courtesy of the Free Billie Allen Campaign.
On November 13th, the Free Billie Allen campaign will stage its largest and most urgent event in Washington DC. Dear Biden: We the People aims to gather protesters of the death penalty and families affected by death penalty verdicts at Farragut Square to galvanize public support for Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act 2021 and secure a Presidential Pardon for Billie Allen, a wrongfully convicted man on federal death row.
Billie Allen has served over 25 years on federal death row for a crime that evidence can prove he did not commit. His campaign team, lawyers and Billie himself, have rigorously argued that he was wrongfully convicted and that key evidence, including negative DNA samples, negative gasoline reports, were ignored in his trial.
Most recently, his case was featured as part of Georgetown University’s Prisons and Justice Initiative: Making an Exoneree. In their groundbreaking documentary film, a Portrait of Innocence: The Story of Billie Allen, students highlight the injustices in Billie’s story, reinvestigating every aspect of his case and injecting fresh momentum into his plea for freedom.
Direct Action in Washington DC
After more than two decades of protest and with a petition carrying nearly 200,000 signatures, campaigners will gather in Washington DC on 13th November, united in their goal to bring Billie home. The milestone We the People event will kick off at 2 PM, with a rally in Farragut Square, followed by a march to the White House and an evening exhibition at Eaton DC to showcase Billie’s artwork.
“Much of Billie’s art is painted in protest at a broken criminal justice system; a system that is failing its citizens and damaging the very soul of our country,” says campaign manager Whitney Meilan Yang. “We the People is our chance to paint a brighter picture that puts truth and justice at the center of things. Unless we do all that we can to turn this vision into a reality, we risk the looming prospect of more executions and a future that’s stripped of humanity.”
Her comments reflect the ongoing pain of families whose lives have been devastated by death penalty verdicts–including Jimmy Lawson, best friend to Julius Jones, saved just four hours before scheduled execution last year, and LaPrince Young, brother to Ledell, executed in 2017. Both Mr. Lawson and Mr. Young will be in attendance at the events.
Show Your Support
Speakers at the event include Qiana Johnson, conductor of legal defense for Harriet’s Wildest Dreams; Nick Courmon, storyteller, spoken word artist-activist; and Arlando Jones III, wrongfully convicted man who served nearly four decades in prison before being exonerated in 2022.
Other partners lending their support and encouraging people across the globe to stand up for justice on November 13th are the Justice Arts Coalition, Sunrise Movement DC, and Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (MADP).
“We want November 13th to be about unity and solidarity,” says Billie’s sister and campaign founder, Yvette Allen. “This has been a very long road for us and countless other families who have seen their loved ones wrongfully convicted. As a rapidly increasing community of abolitionists, our aim is to expose the inhumanity of the death penalty and persuade Americans everywhere that we can do better.”
For more information about Dear Biden: We the People and how you can show your support on November 13th, visit this link.
